Editor’s Note: This story has been updated for 2019.
Reese’s peanut butter cups? Smarties? Jujubes? Halloween candy thrown at parades is a tradition beloved by young and old. But it’s not always distributed in equal amounts.
If running out of candy to throw mid-way through the annual Saucon Valley Spirit Parade is a problem for your organization’s float or marchers the Hellertown Post Office will be there to help you, with a little help from their friends.
Postmaster Joseph DiRusso says the post office will again host a “candy refill station” at the branch at 660 Delaware Avenue in the borough during this year’s parade, which will be held Sunday, Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. (There is no rain date.)
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The post office is located about halfway along the parade route, “and every year the kids run out of candy at the post office,” DiRusso said. “They just don’t understand the concept of rationing their candy to last the whole parade route. They get very excited and candy starts flying.”
The result has historically been that kids watching along the ‘back end’ of the parade route–along Constitution Avenue in Hellertown–get very little if any candy, DiRusso added.
To help make the candy refill station a reality, DiRusso is looking to enlist community support in the form of Halloween candy donations, which can be dropped off at the Hellertown Post Office whenever they are open.
He said that last year more than 250 pounds of candy were donated, and this year he hopes to raise that total.
The post office will also match a percentage of the candy donated for the parade with its own donation.
During the parade, the candy refill station will be set up in the post office parking lot facing Water Street, so as floats go by the marchers will easily be able to refill their pails.
To donate, simply bring unopened, unexpired bags of Halloween candy to the post office, which is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
For more information, about the candy refill station you can call the post office at 610-838-9351. For more information about this year’s parade, follow the Saucon Valley Spirit Parade Facebook page.